Oroville Dam evacuation lifted
Yuba City evacuees opt to stay in Lodi despite lifting of Oroville order
A neighbor in Yuba City who happened to work for Caltrans was the first person to let the Plath family know they had to evacuate. He suggested that they head back to their hometown of Lodi, where other family lives. Finding a place to stay was a challenge for a family of six.
The Plaths are currently staying at the Lodi Salvation Army Hope Harbor Shelter, hoping to ride out the next set of storms in case anything happens at the Oroville Dam.
With the spillway at the Oroville Dam crumbling, there were fears that the reservoir’s excess water would spill uncontrolled down the Feather River and flood the nearby and low-lying communities.
Hundreds of thousands of families were told to evacuate beginning on Sunday with no clear time frame of when they might be able to return to their homes. The mandatory evacuation order was lifted on Tuesday afternoon with a warning to residents to remain vigilant and prepared in case another evacuation order needs to be made, according to Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea in a press release.
Repairs on the spillway continued Tuesday as crews dropped giant sandbags, cement blocks and boulders on damaged areas, according to reports from the Associated Press.
On the day of the evacuation, Rosena Plath drove to the nearby town of Linda to try to find her boyfriend before leaving the area, but she came upon several roadblocks with officers stationed letting people know to turn back. She had to leave him behind.
She, her parents and her three sons later packed up as many of their belongings as they could into a van and car. Their pet lionhead rabbit came, too. Before they left, the children were told to help unplug all the appliances to make sure there would be no fires or electrical issues in the home while they were away.
They set out on the road stuck in gridlock on Highway 99. It took them two-and-a-half hours to get through traffic as evacuees tried to make it to safer ground.
Driving down the freeway,
they had to pull over to the side of the road to use the bathroom since traffic wasn’t moving. They passed cars stuck in the mud trying to crossover from the northbound lanes to the southbound ones.
Finally, they arrived in Lodi. The next stop was the shelter.
“It’s hard to go knocking on my aunt’s door to house six of us,” Rosena Plath said.
While they used the services of the Hope Harbor Shelter overnight and for morning and evening meals, the family had to find places to go during the day and ways to keep busy. They spent time playing monopoly, hanging out at Emerson Park and even bringing out a camping stove to cook hamburgers they brought in an ice chest.
A few times they have spent arranging and rearranging the contents of their vehicles to find things to make pasta.
“When we were looking for the strainer, we tore up the whole car,” Rosena Plath said.
So far the family has spent three nights in the shelter. Rosena has been missing attending and helping out at her church where she helps distribute supplies to the homeless.
It has been difficult for Rosena’s senior parents, Walter and Shirley Plath who have medical issues to contend with.
In a shelter, the set times for meals are difficult for elders who often are accustomed to their own personal routines, Shirley Plath said. The upheaval and uncertainty from leaving home to dealing with medical conditions that require regular access to medications and CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines has taken a toll.
“I just pray hard that we don’t have to keep going through this,” Shirley Plath said.
She and her husband originally lived and worked in Lodi for many years.
Walter Plath is a veteran who served in the Army and later the National Guard Reserve out of Lodi. He still pays dues to the American Legion. Shirley Plath was previously a member of the American Legion Auxiliary.
Shirley Plath recalls having been homeless or close to being homeless two times before — once, when her pregnancy and her husband’s military injury left both unable to work for a short period of time, and another time when they couldn’t continue working at a group home and were living out of a “hippie-looking van.”
She spoke with others about the evacuation, and said that she and many residents affected were concerned that the government failed to step in and make necessary repairs and upgrades to the spillway when agencies were notified of a potential problem.
“All these people are dispersed because the government didn’t listen,” she said.
Although residents are now allowed to go back to their homes, the Plaths are opting to stay in Lodi until they feel it is truly safe to go back. With several storms on the horizon, they are worried that they might run into trouble after more water comes through the dam.
“Better to be safe than sorry,” Rosena Plath said. “Why waste the gas, if we’re already down here where its safe?”